The Girl Who Came Home: A Novel of the Titanic by Hazel Gaynor

Inspired by true events, The Girl Who Came Home: A Novel of the Titanic tells the story of Maggie Murphy, a seventeen year old Irish girl. Maggie, along with thirteen other members of her small Irish town, set sail on the maiden voyage of the unsinkable R.M.S. Titanic, in search of a better life in America. For Maggie, the trip is bittersweet as she leaves behind the man she loves.

Although the group of fourteen who set sail on Titanic from a small town in Ireland are third class passengers aboard the ship, Gaynor still paints a lovely picture of just how beautiful everything aboard the Titanic must have been. From the beautiful china with the White Star Line logo, to the description of the first class passengers, and the impeccable food served aboard the glorious ship, Gaynor makes the reader feel as if they're sailing on board with Maggie.

On that fateful night in April, when Titanic hit the iceberg, Maggie is the only one from her group of fourteen to make it aboard the Carpathia, and eventually to safety at a New York City hospital. With a bit of recovery ahead of her and no family with her, Maggie is unsure what to do next.

Fast forward to 1982, where Grace, a young journalism college student begins to drift after the unexpected death of her beloved father. That is until Great-grandmother Maggie tells the story of what happened aboard the Titanic the horrible night of April 15th, 1912. After hearing Maggie's story, Grace once again feels the fire to write. After having Maggie's story published, Grace's life slowly begins to rebuild itself. When the offer presents itself Grace and Maggie find themselves in Ireland. It's proof that you're never too old to go home.

With Gaynor's attention to detail and her ability to tell a story, this book will suit the reading interests of Titanic and historical fiction enthusiasts alike.

When Books Went to War by Molly Guptil Manning

World War II was a war that united the American population like no other. Young men enlisted to serve in the Armed Forces and civilians pitched in by making whatever sacrifices they could make: planting Victory Gardens, living with food and gasoline rationing, turning possessions into scrap (metal, paper, cloth), and donating books for the troops. Unfortunately, the book donation program was not entirely successful. Many titles donated were not of interest to young American men (knitting, theology, and foreign policy, just to name a few of the not terribly enticing subjects.) But an even bigger problem was the size of the books. Before the 1950’s, very few books were published in paperback. The hardcover books were simply too big and bulky for an infantryman to add to his already heavy load of over 60 pounds. A solution was proposed and accepted—small, lightweight books printed especially for the men in the Armed Services. ASEs (Armed Service Editions) were designed. Titles were chosen, printed and distributed to the far corners of the earth. And they were greatly appreciated by men in foxholes, in jungles, in deserts, on ships and in hospitals. Surprisingly perhaps, the most popular title was A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. Many soldiers and sailors wrote to her, describing the comfort they found in her story of a Brooklyn family, living an American life much like theirs. Second in popularity was Chicken Every Sunday by Rosemary Taylor, a memoir of life in her mother’s boarding house with many mouth-watering descriptions of good old American food. There were many other popular authors like Ernest Hemingway, Marjorie Rawlings, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Mark Twain and Charles Dickens, as well as histories, biographies, poetry and numerous other subjects. Many of the service men were readers who took solace in books. Others were introduced to reading for pleasure by the ASEs and returned home with a new interest in literature. Librarians and publishers fought shortages of funds, shortages of paper and, eventually, even censorship to keep the program running and, in the end, they were as victorious as the American Armed Forces.  Anyone reading a blog like this one can appreciate the contribution the ASEs made in the quality of life of the American G.I. When Books Went to War lists all the titles published by the program, year by year. Some of the titles are out of print, but, for the information of the omnivorous and curious reader, many are available in our library system.

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simson

Meet Don Tillman, a brilliant genetics professor at an Australian university. Within the first few pages, the reader realizes that Don isn't your ordinary person. He's a bit socially inept--he has few friends beside Gene (a fellow professor studying attraction to women of different decent, by, of course, sleeping with women from different countries) and Claudia, plans his daily schedule down to the minute, and calculates people's BMIs upon their first meeting. As the reader learns a bit more about Don, they realize that Don's social inadequacies have clearly hindered him from falling in love. Realizing that the perfect girl is the part missing from his life, Don takes it upon himself to create a questionnaire with crazy, detailed questions to find the most suitable female partner.

Enter Rosie, who is nothing like Don. She's constantly late, disorganized, and is in no way a suitable match for Don. When Don thinks that Rosie is a woman who filled out his questionnaire, he garners up enough courage to ask her to dinner. The first night Don and Rosie meet turns into a fiasco, in true Don fashion. As the two begin to talk about their lives, Rosie tells Don that she doesn't know who her father is. This piques the ear of Don, the genetics professor. It's then that the Father Project develops. Don agrees to use his love of academia and the study of genetics to help Rosie find her dad.

As the two of them work to find out who Rosie's dad is, it seems as if a chemistry is built. 

The Rosie Project will have you laughing until the very end, while constantly rooting for the socially awkward protagonist to find the love that he so desperately deserves.

Big Little Lies by Lianne Moriarty

Big Little Lies follows three women, all at a crossroads in life. Meet Madeline, a forty-something, divorced and remarried mom of a teenager and two elementary school age children. To put it lightly, Madeline is never afraid to speak her mind. Her oldest, Abigail would much rather live with Madeline's ex-husband and his new wife, Bonnie, much to Madeline's chagrin. As if that wasn't bad enough, Madeline's youngest has just started kindergarten with her ex-husband and Bonnie's daughter. Awkward.

Enter Celeste. Seen as the gorgeous, wealthy mom of two twin, kindergarten-aged boys Celeste has all that she could ever need...on the outside. Although money has never been an issue and she's tall and beautiful and her life appears otherwise perfect, that couldn't be farther from the truth. Though pretending to have a perfect marriage on the outside, Celeste tries desperately to hide the fact that she's the victim of domestic abuse. There's a constant inner struggle for Celeste...should she leave Perry? What about the boys?

Then there's new to town, young, single mother Jane. Jane is plain. reserved and often appears sad, worrying about her five year old son, Ziggy. While Jane's mom is so enamored with the fact that Ziggy is his grandfather reincarnated, Jane is concerned that Ziggy has inherited some questionable behavior from his father, Jane is constantly on edge trying to protect the little life she's created, but will it be enough to protect them?

When all of these women meet at kindergarten orientation, they realize that though their stories may be different, they completely understand one another. This whodunit  type story revolving around murder, bullying, and domestic abuse, will definitely keep you reading, laughing, and guessing who exactly did what.